Former tomato kingpin given 6-year term; to give up millions

Wednesday

Feb 13, 2013 at 12:01 AM

SACRAMENTO - The former top company official of SK Foods tomato company, with a facility in Ripon, was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison and three years of supervised release for racketeering and price fixing.

The Record

SACRAMENTO - The former top company official of SK Foods tomato company, with a facility in Ripon, was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison and three years of supervised release for racketeering and price fixing.

Frederick Scott Salyer, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton. The company was forced into bankruptcy.

Salyer admitted in a plea deal to racketeering and encouraging a food broker to bribe purchasing agents for such companies as Kraft Foods and Frito-Lay into buying SK Foods' products.

Salyer in 2009 moved more than $3 million to Andorra and fled to the small country in the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France. During a visit to the U.S. in February 2010, Salyer was jailed as a flight risk and later indicted by a federal grand jury. He posted $6 million bail seven months later.

Salyer, who pleaded guilty to the charges March 23, is scheduled to surrender himself April 9. He was ordered to forfeit $3.45 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.